07/19/2011

During its first year in business, CrossFit Elysium faced many challenges. Co-owners Leon Chang and Paul Estrada share what they’ve learned.

An oft-repeated statement in the affiliate community is “focus on being a great trainer. If you provide superior training to your clients, the business results will come.”

Sometimes this is summarized as “the cream will rise to the top,” referring to the implication or hope that being a great coach will inevitably yield success. These statements have increased in usage as the number of affiliates and concerns about the overall level of training and the effect on the CrossFit name have grown. Unfortunately, they might delude an owner/operator into thinking that all he or she has to focus on is training to make the affiliate or business successful. Nothing could be further from the truth.

As Coach Greg Glassman said when asked how to evaluate the quality of an affiliate, “How clean is your bathroom?” So much that goes into running a successful business and an affiliate has little or nothing to do with training. Life skills, people management, organization, good old-fashioned hard work and, to put it plainly, luck all play a decisive role in determining the fate of one’s business. The goal with this article is to give the reader some general insights discovered in the year CrossFit Elysium has been open. After the trials and tribulations we’ve been through, we hope to offer advice that hopefully any affiliate owner—but especially smaller affiliates—will find useful.

Thank you for handing down penalties that only adversely affect the players who did things the right way. This reeks of an organization desperate to prove that it has some sort of control over its member institutions despite lacking the ability and firepower to police the serious offenders and protect the student-athletes whose interests you purport to have at heart.

While I realize that all violations merit some kind of punishment, I have a hard time grasping the notion that one of the proudest moments in my life (and the lives of every other individual that was a part of the team and program in 2009) is apparently worth $312 in your eyes. If that truly is the case, I'd be happy to provide you with that same amount of money (cash or check, your choice) in exchange for the reinstatement of the title my teammates and I earned through our blood, sweat and tears.

It took months of hard work, dedication and personal sacrifice by a team of over 100 players, 10 coaches and countless staff members to achieve that championship, but, evidently, it only takes the handful of pencil pushers, lawyers and professors on your infractions committee to strip us of it.

I was a part of the 2009 ACC Championship team and, while you can pretend retroactively that it didn't happen, I have vivid memories of an incredible season that was, and continues to be, one of the most fun, meaningful, important, and very real times in my 23 years on this planet. I'll be wearing my championship ring with pride and if you want that too, you'll have to pry it from my cold, dead finger.

Sincerely,

Sean Bedford

Bedofrd told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he hoped his rant wouldn't come back to haunt Tech, but he also said that several fans, former GT players and players from other teams have shown their support for his words.

Much has been made about whether vacating wins is a worthwhile punishment and I think in some cases it's more effective than others. Obviously, Georgia Tech was not as notorious of an offender as Ohio State, which is why the vacation of their ACC title is a little harsher than Ohio State's. And that's why the outcry has been so boisterous, passionate and, ultimately, warranted.

Jeff and Mikki Lee Martin explain how to run a CrossFit Kids promotion.

CrossFit Kids has had the good fortune to be invited to present our program in several different major venues as well as the opportunity to support local affiliates with various promotions.

We would like to present some guidelines that have helped us enjoy successful events. What follows are some of the ways you can ensure kids have a great, safe time and parents learn exactly what their children are doing—and where they can go to do more!

We all want to impress friends, workers and comely barmaids with the perfect fantasy/All-American/dark horse Heisman pick that will turn out to be devastatingly accurate in December. But who? As usual, your best option this fall is to mine the tried-and-true ranks of stat-busting quarterbacks with a schedule full of ripe defenses for the picking.

In 2011, that means four names: Dual-threat Tulsa senior G.J. Kinne, tireless Hawaii senior Bryant Moniz, unflappable Boise State senior Kellen Moore and the elder statesman, sixth-year Houston senior Case Keenum. Between Keenum's arm, Kinne's versatility, Moniz's flowing locks and Moore's eerie consistency, they make a complete set of prolific overachievement. But if you only need one, there is only one place to go: To the tape!

. . .

CASE KEENUM

G.J. KINNE

BRYANT MONIZ

KELLEN MORE

ADVANTAGE

GENERIC PROFILE

Prolific slinger gets second chance at grand finale.

Texas refugee found perfect fit just as Longhorn offense went off the rails.

There you have it: When in doubt, double down on the reigning Heisman finalist to reprise the Broncos' long-running reign of death in the WAC in their new home in the Mountain West, en route to becoming the winningest quarterback in the history of college football. The barmaids of the Northwest are counting on you, Kellen.

3:40 R.A.W. Training in Wildwood, Pa., is training athletes—and training them well. R.A.W. stands for “realize the athlete within,” and R.A.W. showed the efficacy of their training and programming when they placed third in the team division of the Reebok CrossFit Games Open. R.A.W. co-founder Molly Tuman, who placed 11th in the Mid-Atlantic Region, came on the show to talk about her team and their training. After a top 20 finish in last year’s Affiliate Cup, the team members rededicated themselves and have trained together for an entire year. Many athletes had to decide whether to compete as individuals or as part of a team, and Tuman described how her athletes made the decision.

18:00 Tony Zana and Baker Leavitt are CrossFitters first and creators of 2Pood second. 2Pood makes performance clothing and accessories for CrossFit athletes. The duo came on the show to talk about the creation of their apparel and how they test their designs. 2Pood sponsors a host of elite CrossFitters, as well as CrossFit events around the country. They explained how they determine which athletes they want to have on their team, as well as how they chose their company’s unique name.

36:30 Jasmine Dever’s CrossFit accomplishments are impressive. She competed in the 2010 CrossFit Games and is storming into this season by finishing first in the Southwest Region and 18th overall in the Reebok CrossFit Games Open. After a disappointing finish in last year’s Games, Dever was highly motivated as she entered this season. Jasmine talked about her training and what she will do between now and her regional competition.

Resistance training and kids is a contentious issue. Maurizio Guarrata and Dan Edelman offer some perspective from athletic training in Europe.

Youth resistance training has generated a lot of controversy over the years. Through the 1980s, the common wisdom held that youth resistance training was ineffective. In addition, a myth that weight training stunts children’s growth, typically seen as stemming from Kato and Ishiko’s study, persists even today.

However, over time, better-designed studies indicated that, indeed, strength can be increased in children and that resistance programs were not only safe but integral to children’s general fitness and sports performance. The wealth of empirical evidence specifying the positive impact of resistance training for kids has led many key authorities to come out in support of youth resistance training.

Safety is a critical dimension, no doubt, especially with respect to technique, but, again, practice and statistics show that when done with adequate supervision, resistance training with children and teens is relatively injury- and accident-free when compared to sports, while strength gains are genuine and help decrease the incidence of sports-related injuries.

Join reporter Jennifer Hunter as she shares the story of Jacinto Bonilla of CrossFit NYC.

Bonilla is a 72-year-old trainer at his gym. After finding CrossFit at age 67, Bonilla decided to give a second career a try and retired from radiography to become a coach. Even with an athletic background in competitive running, bodybuilding and circuit training, he says, “CrossFit really humbled me. ... I thought I was in shape.”

Bonilla competed in the 2008 CrossFit Games and had planned on competing in regionals last year, but an injury took him out of the competition. This year, he finished seventh overall in the masters 60-plus division and looks forward to the main event at the Home Depot Center this July.

When asked about how aging affects him as a CrossFitter, Bonilla replies, “You slow down, but that’s about it, you know. I still feel as strong as I was, and I still feel that I could do a lot of things.”

Bonilla concludes: “I wish that every 70-year-old could do the things I do.”

One is Miami, the school that has courted James' affection since he signed with the Heat last summer. The other is Kentucky, which has strengthened its ties with James the past two years as a result of his friendship with coach John Calipari.

For Ohio State, Kentucky and Miami to align themselves with James is a wise move from a recruiting standpoint. The NBA star may be a polarizing figure among most hoops fans, but many 16- and 17-year-old prospects still idolize him.

The risk for Ohio State in strengthening its ties to James is that it could alienate a segment of its fan base that feels betrayed by the way he left the Cleveland Cavaliers. Plain Dealer columnist Bill Livingston already penned this column bashing Ohio State for being tone deaf to Cleveland fans' dislike of James, an opinion that some in the comments section of the story seem to share.

There won't be much fan backlash in Lexington or Coral Gables, but Kentucky and Miami should expect to be the brunt of jokes if they play poorly down the stretch of close games. Already the Louisville Courier-Journal's Eric Crawford has spearheaded that movement by making a faux laundry care label for Kentucky's jerseys.